


Reacher: A Ship Manifesto

by Silver_Queen_DoS



Category: Jack Reacher Series - Lee Child
Genre: Meta, Shipping Manifesto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24189979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Queen_DoS/pseuds/Silver_Queen_DoS
Summary: A multi-ship manifesto written for Meta Manifesto 2020 on potential Jack Reacher ships.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Meta Manifesto 2020 Fest





	Reacher: A Ship Manifesto

### THE CANON

[ ](URL)

The [Jack Reacher Series](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Reacher_\(novel_series\)) is a twenty four book series (including novellas and short stories) written by [Lee Child](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Child) (James Grant). They are a series of crime-thriller novels featuring the eponymous protagonist, Jack Reacher, as he moves from one situation to another. 

On the surface, the novels are detective stories, involving plenty of mystery and twists and turns. But the solution to the mystery is very rarely legally permissible, and Child himself says: 

> At a very simple point, the Reacher stories are revenge stories. [...] Somebody does a very bad thing, and Reacher takes revenge.  
>  Curtis, Bryan (20 December 2012).[ "The Curious Case of Lee Child: Before Tom Cruise could become Jack Reacher, Jim Grant had to become Lee Child"](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8766396/lee-child-jim-grant-jack-reacher).[ Grantland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantland).  
> 

> My books are straightforward, old-fashioned adventures where there is a clear-cut, binary choice: You are either with the hero or against him, and that determines your fate. And Jack Reacher will never lose, and he will never be gray in any way.  
>  Bidinotto, Robert (17 March 2011).[ "Thriller: Lee Child and the creation of Jack Reacher"](http://atlassociety.org/commentary/commentary-blog/4508-thriller-lee-child-and-the-creation-of-jack-reacher). _The Atlas Society_.  
> 

While the series is largely consecutive beginning with _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_ and taking place in chronological order — with a few 'flashback' novels such as _[The Enemy](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Enemy)_ , _[The Affair](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Affair)_ , and _[Night School](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Night_School)_ — the itinerant nature of Reacher's travelling means there are very few characters, places or settings that reoccur, leading to the books being able to be read in any particular order. This was a deliberate choice on the author's part, to increase the commercial viability of a long series. 

> I did that deliberately for two reasons. Number one, I cannot stand a mystery series where the characters talk to each other about past cases. [...] Number two, it's the characterization of Reacher. He's not interested in what happened yesterday. He's not particularly interested in what happens tomorrow. It's all about today, for him. So he would never refer back. Therefore you can pick up the series anyplace. The books are self-explanatory. You can start anywhere. You can read them in any order.  
>  (November 2018) [Lee Child and George R.R. Martin Q&A](https://www.penguin.co.nz/qa/2453-lee-child-and-george-rr-martin-in-conversation).

> He has no job and no home, and so his stories can be about anything and take place anywhere. It is not like he is a detective in New York, or bound to anywhere.  
> Terence Toh (January 7, 2020) [Jack Reacher creator Lee Child tells us what makes his thrillers so popular](https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/01/06/jack-reacher-creator-lee-child-tells-us-what-makes-his-thrillers-so-popular.html). The Star/Asia News Network/The Jakarta Post.

Two of the books were also adapted into films: _[Jack Reacher: One Shot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Reacher_\(film\))_ and _[Jack Reacher: Never Go Back](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Reacher:_Never_Go_Back)_ featuring Tom Cruise in the lead role. There's also a possible upcoming[ TV Series](https://collider.com/jack-reacher-amazon-series-details/) made by Amazon. 

### THE CHARACTER

Jack Reacher (consistently called by his surname, Reacher) is an unemployed veteran of the United States Army, where he served in the military police. _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_ , the first published book, opens six months after his resignation from the army. From there, Reacher maintains a wandering lifestyle, never settling down, always moving from location to location, travelling with no possessions but a folding toothbrush (and later an ATM card and a Passport). 

> Reacher is a modern version of a character that’s been around for a long time. The noble loner, or the mysterious stranger. In the West, we call it the knight errant.  
>  Terence Toh (January 7, 2020) [Jack Reacher creator Lee Child tells us what makes his thrillers so popular](https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/01/06/jack-reacher-creator-lee-child-tells-us-what-makes-his-thrillers-so-popular.html). The Star/Asia News Network/The Jakarta Post.

Born on a military base, Reacher grew up moving from place to place as his father — a US Marine — was posted around the globe. Both he and his older brother, Joe Reacher, joined the US Army as soon as they were eligible. Reacher spent four years at West Point and served for thirteen years, terminating at Major, including leading the fictional 110th Special Investigations Unit — noted to be exceptionally elite. 

> “OK,” I said. “According to your fancy definition, I don’t come from anywhere. I come from a place called Military. I was born on a U.S. Army base in West Berlin. My old man was Marine Corps and my mother was a French civilian he met in Holland. They got married in Korea.”
> 
> Finlay nodded. Made a note. 
> 
> “I was a military kid,” I said. “Show me a list of U.S. bases all around the world and that’s a list of where I lived. I did high school in two dozen different countries and I did four years up at West Point.” 
> 
> “Go on,” Finlay said. 
> 
> “I stayed in the army,” I said. “Military Police. I served and lived in all those bases all over again. Then, Finlay, after thirty-six years of first being an officer’s kid and then being an officer myself, suddenly there’s no need for a great big army anymore because the Soviets have gone belly-up. So hooray, we get the peace dividend. Which for you means your taxes get spent on something else, but for me means I’m a thirty-six-year-old unemployed ex-military policeman getting called a vagrant by smug civilian bastards who wouldn’t last five minutes in the world I survived.”  
>  _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_ Chapter 2 

Physically, Reacher is noted to be extremely tall and muscular. This makes him imposing to other characters and contributes to his own 'invulnerable' mindset. 

> His mother had been scared of cities. It had been part of his education. She had told him cities are dangerous places. They're full of tough, scary guys. He was a tough boy himself but he had walked around as a teenager ready and willing to believe her. And he had seen that she was right. People on city streets were fearful and furtive and defensive. They kept their distance and crossed to the opposite sidewalk to avoid coming near him. They made it so obvious he became convinced the scary guys were always right behind him, at his shoulder. Then he suddenly realized no, I'm the scary guy. They're scared of me. It was a revelation. He saw himself reflected in store windows and understood how it could happen. He had stopped growing at fifteen when he was already six feet five and two hundred and twenty pounds. A giant. Like most teenagers in those days he was dressed like a bum. The caution his mother had drummed into him was showing up in his face as a blank-eyed, impassive stare. They're scared of me. It amused him and he smiled and then people stayed even farther away. From that point onward he knew cities were just the same as every other place, and for every city person he needed to be scared of there were nine hundred and ninety-nine others a lot more scared of him. He used the knowledge like a tactic, and the calm confidence it put in his walk and his gaze redoubled the effect he had on people.  
>  _[Running Blind](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Running_Blind)_

Reacher is a keen detective and prides himself on his ability to judge character and instinctively 'know' when someone is trying to con him. He has a fascination with numbers, often narrating statistics and mathematics to amuse himself. He's a fan of music — notably the blues — to the point where he spends a portion of _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_ investigating the historic death of the singer Blind Blake. 

> “Blind Blake was a guitar player,” I said. “Died sixty years ago, maybe murdered. My brother bought a record, sleeve note said it happened in Margrave. He wrote me about it. Said he was through here a couple of times in the spring, some kind of business. I thought I’d come down and check the story out.”  
>  _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_ Chapter 2

Because of his wandering lifestyle, Reacher often makes decisions based on whims: stopping at towns with interesting names, getting on the next available bus regardless of destination, hitchhiking to wherever the driver is going. He repeatedly rejects the idea of settling down into a 'normal' lifestyle, or of owning more than he can carry. After the death of his brother Joe he has no surviving family and makes no real attempts to establish long lasting connections with people. 

Though several of the books address this, they end with reaffirming his loner status and returning to the status quo ready for the next book. 

#### Fanfiction Potential

Though there isn't much fanfiction written for this series, it's easy to see the potential in a medium that isn't required to return to the status quo. The facets of Reacher that make him an interesting protagonist — a wandering loner with no fixed address — are also interesting to challenge and interrogate in a format that's known as much for emotional continuity as plot. 

### THE SHIPS

Because of the wandering nature of the protagonist and the way that the series changes cast with each book, Reacher's romantic interests rarely last longer than the book they're in. I won't speak to all of them, just highlight a few that stand out to me (and then a few potential ships of interest). 

#### The Canon Ones

###### Officer Roscoe

Roscoe is the romantic interest of _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_ and exemplifies the kind of women that Reacher is drawn to. 

She's an officer with the Margrave Police Department, intelligent and competent and entangled with the plot of the novel. She provides the local knowledge, equipment and connections required to effectively solve the case, while at times being a little hesitant to accept Reacher's 'outside the law' help. 

> This was a good-looking woman. About thirty, dark, not tall. But to call her medium would be unfair to her. She had a kind of vitality. It had come across as a sympathetic briskness in that first interview room. A professional bustle. Now she seemed unofficial. Probably was. Probably against the fat chief’s rules to bring coffee to the condemned man. It made me like her.

Roscoe is confident and forward, being the one to verbally initiate a connection with Reacher, despite him being a murder suspect when they meet. 

> “No,” she said. “You don’t match the deviance profile.”
> 
> “I don’t?” I said. 
> 
> “I could tell right away.” She smiled. “You got nice eyes.” She winked and walked away.

But Roscoe's connections to Margrave are also why they don't work as a couple. Her desire to stay and help her town recover is at odds with his desire to leave and continue his wandering lifestyle. 

> “Work my butt off, I guess,” she said. “There’s going to be a lot to do. We’re going to have to rebuild this whole town. Maybe we can make something better out of it, create something worthwhile. And I can play a big part in it. I’ll move up the totem pole a couple of notches. I’m really excited. I’m looking forward to it. This is my town and I’m going to be really involved in it. Maybe I’ll get on the town board. Maybe I’ll even run for mayor. That would be a hell of a thing, wouldn’t it? After all these years, a Roscoe for mayor, instead of a Teale?”
> 
> [...] 
> 
> And I slowly realized that staying there would tear me apart just as much as leaving was going to. Because I didn’t want the stuff she was talking about. I didn’t want elections and mayors and votes and boards and committees. I didn’t want property taxes and maintenance and chambers of commerce and strategies. I didn’t want to be sitting there all bored and chafing.

Ultimately, Roscoe works well as a love interest but it's no particular surprise that she gets no further mentions in later books. 

###### Jodie Jacob nee Garber

Jodie is the romantic interest of _[Tripwire](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Tripwire)_ and _[Running Blind](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Running_Blind)_ (though she has a much smaller role and less screentime) making her one of the few characters to carry through multiple books. 

She is the daughter of General Leon Garber — one of Reacher's notable commanding officers who appears in _[Die Trying](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Die_Trying)_ , _[The Affair](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Affair)_ , _[The Enemy](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Enemy)_ and _[Night School](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Night_School)_ — and attempts to contact Reacher under the name Mrs Jacob during the start of _[Tripwire](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Tripwire)_ for her father's funeral. 

Jodie and Reacher have a long history of attraction to each other. Their connection goes back fifteen years, to when Jodie was fifteen and Reacher was twenty-four. They both note that they were attracted to each other at that time, but due to differences in age, position etc wisely held back from making any moves. 

> He remembered screaming at himself hold on, pal, she's only fifteen and she's your CO's daughter.  
>  _[Tripwire](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Tripwire)_

When they reunite in _[Tripwire](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Tripwire)_ those obstacles are removed and they enter into a romantic relationship. It's clear that they have a genuine affection for each other that the time apart hasn't erased but it's also clear that their world views are very different. Jodie has separated from the army lifestyle that Reacher inhabits — she's a New York financial lawyer — and finds his vigilantism worrying. 

> "This is not the Army, Reacher," she said. "You can't just drag a couple of guys behind the motor pool and beat some sense into them anymore. This is New York. This is civilian stuff now. They're looking at you for something bad and you can't just pretend they're not."
> 
> "I didn't do anything." 
> 
> "Wrong, Reacher. You put two guys in the hospital. They watched you do it. Bad guys, for sure, but there are rules here. You broke them."  
>  _[Running Blind](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Running_Blind)_

Like with Roscoe, Reacher's relationship with Jodie breaks off when he will not adapt to a normal life and returns to wandering. However, Reacher comes a lot closer over the two books of _[Tripwire](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Tripwire)_ and _[Running Blind](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Running_Blind)_ — living in a single place, owning a house, contemplating setting up a detective agency or similar. There's a sense of potential to it — a _could have been._

###### Frances Neagley

Neagley is a reoccuring character that appears in _[Without Fail](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Without_Fail)_ , _[Bad Luck and Trouble](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Luck_and_Trouble)_ , _[The Affair](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Affair)_ , and _[Night School](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Night_School)_ with a mention in _[Never Go Back](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Never_Go_Back)_. She's a Master Sergeant with the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit and later a security consultant with a successful firm in Chicago. 

Reacher and Neagley don't engage in a relationship, but both note their attraction to each other. What keeps them apart largely seems to be Neagley's haptephobia (a fear of being touched). The most physically intimate moment they share is in _[Without Fail](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Without_Fail)_ after Froelich dies: 

> She moved her hand, very slowly. It started an inch from his hand. She made the inch last like a million miles. Her fingers moved imperceptibly over the washed-out counterpane until they were a fraction from his. Then they lifted and moved more, until they were directly over his and just a fraction above. It was like there was a layer of air between their hands, compressed so hard it was warm and liquid. She floated her hand on the air and kept it motionless. Then she pressed harder and brought it down and her fingers touched the backs of his fingers, very lightly. She turned her elbow so her hand lay precisely aligned. Then she pushed down harder. Her palm felt warm. Her fingers were long and cool. Their tips lay on his knuckles. They moved and traced the lines and scars and tendons. They raked down between his. He turned his hand over. She pressed her palm into his. Laced her fingers through his fingers and squeezed. He squeezed back.
> 
> He held her hand for five long minutes. Then she slowly pulled it away. Stood up and stepped to the door. Smiled.  
>  _[Without Fail](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Without_Fail)_

When on a case together they make a formidable duo. They trust and respect each other greatly, as well as having a close understanding of each other. In _[Without Fail](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Without_Fail)_ when Reacher is working with the Secret Service, he contacts Neagley instantly to provide unknown backup. In _[Bad Luck and Trouble](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Luck_and_Trouble)_ when Neagley needs to contact Reacher — who has no phone, address or means of contact — she does so by making a deposit to his bank account in an amount equal to a military 1030 code knowing that he will notice the discrepancy. 

Neagley as a reoccuring character makes her an excellent companion for Reacher — there's the sense that the two of them can pick up after a long absence and carry on as though no time had passed. Neither of them take radio silence as any kind of personal insult, and both of them are willing to drop what they're doing to help the other if they become aware of a cause. Of all the characters, Neagley seems like the one that Reacher is most likely to reach out to again, or whose orbit Reacher is mostly likely to be drawn into again. 

#### The Not So Canon Ones

These are the potential ships that _aren't_ in the series, for whatever reason. All the romances in the novels are heterosexual, so there's potential to be explored there! Or with small part characters that have caught my attention. Again, this is in no way an exhaustive list. 

###### Captain Finlay

> He was a tall, elegant man. Educated in Boston. Civilized. Experienced.

Finlay is the second of the two 'good cops' of _[Killing Floor](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Floor)_. He's Margrave's Chief Detective, having moved there six months previously for a change of lifestyle, after completing twenty years in Boston PD and going through a divorce. 

He's noted to be exceptionally competent and thorough. His initial interactions with Reacher are very by-the-book, but he quickly comes to listen when Reacher is disproven as a suspect and shares his own investigative expertise. 

> The voice was deep. Like a rumble. Not a southern accent. He looked and sounded like a Boston banker, except he was black.
> 
> “My name is Finlay,” he said. “My rank is captain. I am chief of this department’s detective bureau. I understand you have been apprised of your rights. You have not yet confirmed that you understood them. Before we go any further we must pursue that preliminary matter.” 
> 
> Not a Boston banker. More like a Harvard guy.

> This was a stubborn guy. Probably forty-five. You don’t get to be chief of detectives in a Georgia jurisdiction if you’re forty-five and black except if you’re a stubborn guy. No percentage in jerking him around.

Finlay and Reacher share a surprising amount of backstory with each other — comparing Finlay's retirement from Boston PD and divorce to Reacher's discharge from the army. They also team up and work well together under pressure, attacking the Kliner Warehouse in the climax. 

###### Colonel John Trent

> He was tall, built like a greyhound, short black hair silvering at the temples.

Colonel Trent is an officer at Fort Dix during _[Running Blind](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Running_Blind)_ who Reacher contacts in order to work around the FBI. He's polite and well respected and able to quickly and put together a secret travel plan and alibi for Reacher. 

We get very little backstory for the favour he owes Reacher, but it sets up an interesting dynamic between them — clearly laying out the way they became associated as well as emphasising Trent's honest nature. And the fact that, even at the time, Reacher knew and acknowledged that. 

> Reacher nodded. Trent owed the second half of his career to a paragraph Reacher had omitted from an official report ten years before. Trent had assumed the paragraph was written and ready to go. He had come to see Reacher, not to plead for its deletion, not to bargain, not to bribe, but just to explain, officer to officer, how he'd made the mistake. Simply because he had needed Reacher to understand it was a mistake, not malice or dishonesty. He had left without asking for a thing, and then sat still and waited for the ax. It never came. The report was published and the paragraph wasn't in it. What Trent didn't know was that Reacher had never even written it. Then ten years had passed and the two men hadn't really spoken since. Not until the previous morning, when Reacher had made the first of his urgent calls from Jodie's apartment.  
> 

Trent's good nature really shines through in his 'repayment' of his favour to Reacher. He goes as far as giving him a gun, organising a Marine Corps helicopter and Navy Reserve driver, while using himself as an alibi — spending an entire day locked into his office alone going over tedious personnel records on the pretense of searching for the UNSUB. 

> "Colonel must owe you big," the pilot said.
> 
> "No, he just likes me," Reacher said. 

###### David O’Donnell

> Dave O’Donnell was there, tall, fair, handsome, like a stockbroker with a switchblade.

Dave O'Donnell is introduced in _[Bad Luck and Trouble](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Luck_and_Trouble)_ (with a mention in _[Never Go Back](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Never_Go_Back)_ ) and is one of the surviving members of the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit. After his discharge from the Army he settles in Washington DC as a Private Detective. 

O'Donnell is a good investigator, easily able to locate and catch up with Reacher when he receives the call in _[Bad Luck and Trouble](https://jack-reacher.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Luck_and_Trouble)_. 

> O’Donnell shifted in his seat and took a switchblade from one coat pocket and a set of brass knuckles from the other. “A guy who can get these through airport security can get into a hotel room, believe me.”

Reacher and O'Donnell work well together, have an easy dialogue, and spend a substantial amount of time comparing their post-military lifestyles. They have a clear respect for each other and their abilities and work easily in sync. 

> O’Donnell asked, “What are you running from?”
> 
> “I’m not running from anything.” 
> 
> [...] 
> 
> Reacher nodded. “You’re doing great, Dave. I mean it. It’s me that I worry about. I’ve been looking at you and Neagley and Karla and feeling like a loser.”

They both have the same kind of humour, enough to easily joke about the dangerous situations they find themselves in. While having enough trust in each other to be sure such statements _are_ joking. 

> O’Donnell said, “You certainly left it until the last minute, didn’t you?”
> 
> Reacher said, “I was trying to decide whether to let them throw you out before I saved Karla. Tough decision. Took some time.” 

### THE CONCLUSION

There are a large number of very interesting characters that show up over the twenty four books of the series. Their relationships with Reacher can be dynamic, but are ultimately short lived given his wandering lifestyle and lack of desire to change. Even when he expresses interest in any kind of continuation of a romantic relationship — it's on his terms, as a drifter. 

The fact that he leaves and moves on quickly is an important part of the Reacher character and ethos, and a driving part of the canon, but it's interesting to examine under the light of fanfiction without that constraint. 


End file.
